Most people tend to think of pest management in terms of residential problems (ants, rodents, cockroaches, termites, etc.). While it’s true that our industry protects from the dangers of pests in home settings, the scope of its importance is so broad that it affects our quality of food and health.

The National Pest Management Association recently shared these reasons why the world relies on pest control:

Public health officials attribute the quality of life we have today to three things: better pharmaceuticals and vaccines, better sanitation and better pest control.

Without pest management practices, pests could destroy more than 50 percent of our food crops.

Rodents consume or contaminate about 20 percent of the world’s food supply. They carry fleas and ticks that frequently carry diseases.

Rats bite more than 45,000 people each year. They can transmit disease organisms such as rat bite fever, salmonella, trichinosis, murine typhus, the plague and leptospirosis. Rats and mice are known to chew through electrical wiring causing electrical malfunctions and even fires.